Grameen has successfully adopted changes to meet the customized needs of their borrowers over the year, like evolving into the Grameen II business model of flex-loan payments.
Being a product of an Entrpreneurship business school, I constantly noticed the lack of diversity in picking the "right" opportunities among the borrowers. Yes, I agree, they are doing much better that they were before and have had an improvement in their quality of life. They even adopt multiple business strategies like farming for 3 months, rickhaws for 7 months and their sewing business for 2 months. Don't quote me on the exact line up of businesses.
However, 70% of the borrowers seem to have the same selection of cyclical businesses. Thats what boggled my mind. Why did the whole town trade cows? And why did they pick the same cyclical businesses? We tried to take some guys out to lunch to show our gratitude for their warmth and hospitality, but the whole village didn't have a single restaurant!
This is the same "disconnect" we observed with all the NGOs operating in Bangladesh. People were not aligning their "unique" skills, passions and a community need which would allow them to pick the "right" opportunity and have less competition if any at all and serve the community better. That way they would get a higher return for the same investment and effort.
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